Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Sore butt

I knew that arriving at a comfortable riding position on Makani Kekoa - my new Cervelo P3 time trial bike - would take time, not to mention a great deal of fiddling. I may feel like a kid inside, but my body is well along the path to old age. Flexibility was never my strength, and these days what little I had is rapidly vanishing.

Before last Sunday's long and windy ride I made some changes to my rear hydration setup that required moving the saddle. I planned on using the ride to tweak the saddle back to optimal position. Sure enough, it wasn't long before I felt like my torso was resting on my scrotum. A gradually rising burn foretold days of discomfort unless something was done.

I pulled off at Wailupe to make the adjustment. Too much. Now my ride felt like sliding down a grassy knoll on a piece of cardboard. Another adjustment split the difference and "Ah, relief!"

Back on the highway I began to notice something interesting. Every few minutes my butt would end up too far forward. Stop peddling, stand up just a bit and slide back. Good. Wait. No. Back again.

I developed a theory. It was not gravity causing my butt to slide forward, at least not entirely. The culprit was my tight hips and hamstrings. Every time my foot came up and over the top of the stroke my too tight thighs yanked my hip forward. Not a lot. Just enough to cause my butt to creep forward. Had my scrotum not been as sensitized I might have missed this.

Tuesday afternoon I rode Makani Kekoa again, an easy ride that let me concentrate on this slippage issue. In the midst of my ride I heard Dorian's voice in my head, reminding me to push on the handlebars. Sure enough, that was what I needed. This will be my number one focal point for my upcoming rides, along with ongoing efforts to open my hips and hamstrings.